Tesco Technika LCD32-209 32in LCD TV - Tesco Technika LCD32-209

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The LCD32-209’s strengths, meanwhile, kick off with some surprisingly decent black levels. Sure, there’s evidence of the common greying over parts of the picture that should be black, but it’s not bad enough to be really distracting in the same way that it was on the Goodmans LD2667D.

What’s more, black levels are good enough to provide a really decent deep counterpoint to bright, rich picture elements, ensuring that extreme-contrast material like the opening credits sequence of ”Casino Royale” looks genuinely punchy and attractive. I didn’t detect much evidence of instability in dark areas, either, even with the automatic backlight dimming feature in action.

The LCD32-209’s HD pictures are generally impressive, too. Colours, curiously, look much more believable and dynamic with HD sources than they do with standard def ones. Also, with relatively static material, such as the meeting between Le Chiffre, Mr White and the Guerilla leader in Uganda at the start of ”Casino Royale”, I was really struck by how crisp and detailed HD images can look. Seriously, under the right circumstances the LCD32-209’s pictures can look very good indeed – far better than I’d expected would be possible on such a cheap TV.

It’s just a damn shame for the Technika that video pictures have a nasty habit of moving on a pretty regular basis, at which point all the innate HD sharpness is undone immediately by the heavy duty motion smearing problem.

The Technika LCD32’s audio belies the set’s uninspiring build quality by actually sounding rather good. There’s a nice sense of depth and width to a good film soundtrack (provided you stick with the best Stereo audio setting); voices are rich and clean; treble details are aggressively presented without sounding harsh; and there’s even a fair bit of bass to be heard from time to time.

”’Verdict”’

Although the LCD32-209’s motion handling problems are impossible to ignore, there are enough positive things about the set to at least enable me to pick Technika out as a budget brand worth keeping an eye on for the future.